luxury custom stone and glass mosaics
We’ve been busy! A big THANK YOU to all the folks who sell and buy New Ravenna products–we wrapped up a stellar year with incredible sales improvements over the two years previous, and this year is continuing the upward trend. As a result…I am getting more sleep (hallelujah) except when my body is in another time zone.
In the last 90 days I’ve been lucky enough to trek to Turkey, Abu Dhabi, the Grenadines, Naples (Florida) and now Jupiter, Florida. Handsome boyfriend Dave is launching Coastal Kayaks, boats (and a brand) he helped design, so he’s making a Florida tour–and you know what that means for me–yes, a chance to escape to the land of Pina Coladas and warmth, if only for a weekend.
BMW M1 with the back hood open
At loose ends in Margaritaville, we attended a local car show (check out the SuWEET BMW M1 above). I don’t know about you, but until recently, old cars held absolutely zero interest for me. Ralph Lauren would wax poetic about his latest acquisition and I would… yawn. However–God must have flipped a switch– now I am crazy about antique cars. Maybe it’s because my personal vehicles are both 12 years old and ready to enter an assisted living facility…
This photo is for my friend Margaret, who takes pictures of things that appear to have faces
A turquoise beast
Love this paint job
Check out the buttons to the left of the steering wheel
You will soon see I am slightly obsessed with hood ornaments; I can’t help it. I think it might stem from my search for a new vehicle and the realization that they all look the same. Is this what automobile design has come to? How depressing.
Bentley
At least half the old designs have wings
Historically, there are a preponderance and great variety of winged-naked-woman hood ornaments. If I were in charge of hood ornament design, this theme would definitely change to winged-naked-men.
Classic Rolls Adornment
Recognize this one?
Classic Packard
Here we go again...
Buick hood ornaments echo torpedoes
Ford Model A--hood ornaments were originally radiator caps.
Another Ford
I snapped most of these shots, but for those of you who are interested there’s a wonderful website dedicated to Hood Ornament photographs here. Amazon also has several books for sale that chronicle their history, including designs by Lalique (a fox like the one below brought over 200k at auction last year!).
Rare Renard fox hood ornament for Rolls Royce
Given what you’ve just seen, how excited do you think I was when I found THIS at my local antique store not even a week after returning?
After-market Mustang hood ornament
Out of all the hood ornaments in the world, you can imagine how thrilled I was to find a horse, one of my favorite animals, immortalized in this after-market Mustang embellishment. (I can’t get the song Mustang Sally out of my head ) But what does one DO with a small chrome sculpture? At New Ravenna there is only one place that it truly belongs…
"Silver" the truck
…on the company truck. Gary Harris, my warehouse manager (and husband to Mary Harris, human resource director) has now christened the truck “Silver”. :) I love it.
Sara Baldwin
Exmore, Virginia, United States
New Ravenna Mosaics founder and Creative Director, Owner, Sara Baldwin Design, Bass guitar player, Envisioner, Appreciator of the Sublime and Ridiculous.
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[...] Sara’s constant quest for new and interesting experiences and designs. So whether she’s at a car show in Naples, in the desert of Abu Dhabi, or reading about travel tales from Peru, there’s always the [...]
Wow! These pictures are awesome! I love older cars!
suv wraps